The Bullen's Journey of Adoption…

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Hopeful

We had our 3rd (and hopefully final) fingerprinting appointment on Friday. The officer at the immigration office said that he has never seen anyone adopting have to get fingerprints more than 3 times. That made us really happy and hopeful, even though it doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t have to. It has now become our tradition to get a picture made outside the fingerprinting office. This time it was raining so it’s a close up!

Upon arriving home this same day, we read that the adoption law in Haiti has officially changed!!! And guess what, we MEET the requirements now! The new law is to be married 5 years and at least 30 years old. Us not meeting the previous law isn’t what has been slowing us down, but we are PRAYING that we will speed through now. We are also being thankful for all our delays over these last 3 years because we may have never made it through with the old law anyway. The law was passed in August but still had to be signed by the President. In Haiti, regarding adoptions, nothing signed by the President is “official” until it runs in the newspaper. So the law was put in the newspaper on Friday, the same day as our fingerprints. We think that was NO coincidence. We have been needing some hope lately. Here is a screenshot. It says, Special Issue: Reforming the Adoption Law.

Another thing to note that has given us great hope and joy, is another one of Mathieu’s friends will be coming HOME!!!! Jon Luke is scheduled to be home NEXT Friday!!! We are so very happy for his family and him. We have all been through so much during these last few years, and I am just thrilled another child is no longer an orphan!

Regarding our process: We are still waiting on the 3 documents to be redone. (Same three from almost a year ago.) Things take a little longer in Haiti! It’s not as easy as going on-line to order a certified copy of your birth certificate, and it arrives in the mail a few days later like we do here in the US. We are waiting on another signature to make them official. A judge has to sign them, and unfortunately, a lot of them are on strike right now. Pray with us that these get signed and we can MOVE to the next step. We have been stuck for so so long. It is easy for us to get frustrated that these 3 documents haven’t been completed before now, but we just go back to the change in the adoption law. We truly feel God had us wait 3 years for this very reason. So we are rejoicing and hopeful today!

Our Family Journey

Welcome to MHIH. We are Elizabeth and Peyton Bullen. In February 2011 while on a mission in Haiti, we met a 3 year old orphaned boy. A short time later we began the adopion process of bringing him home to Tennessee. We created this blog to keep everyone updated on the progress. Thank you for your support!